Amazon may not be in such a hurry to leave the West Coast after all.
The tech giant announced the 20 candidates for its second headquarters, which it said would house 50,000 workers, and Los Angeles was the only West Coast city to make the cut. The news comes as somewhat of a surprise since it was widely expected that Amazon would seek to put distance between its Seattle headquarters and the location of what it’s calling “HQ2.”
Indeed, the majority of finalists are burgeoning Midwest and East Coast tech hubs like Denver, Chicago, Austin, Boston and New York. Toronto was the only city outside the United States — cities from Mexico and Canada also submitted bids — to be named a candidate for HQ2.
“Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals, said Holly Sullivan, Amazon public policy. “Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough — all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity. Throughout this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”
Amazon declined to state why Los Angeles or any other city was named a candidate for HQ2. When it announced the competition, Amazon stated that it preferred cities with a population of over 1 million people that were within 45 minutes of an international airport and that could attract strong talent.
In October the L.A. Times reported that the city and county of Los Angeles were working together on a joint bid, with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. telling the outlet that nine separate sites were being considered.
If Amazon were to choose Los Angeles for HQ2 the company would instantly become the city’s largest tech employer by a mile. As it stands, the Seattle company does not have a major tech presence in the city, although its quickly growing film and TV production arm, Amazon Studios, is based in Santa Monica.
Amazon expects to make a decision on its headquarters sometime in 2018. In the meantime, the company will work with each candidate city to evaluate its proposal, taking into account how potential sites would impact hiring plans, benefit its employees and affect the surrounding community.
